1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an occupant protective device for protecting an occupant in an emergency such as a collision of a vehicle, and more particularly to an occupant protective device applicable to a motor vehicle provided with a seatbelt system for moderating the forces of collision acting on the knees of an occupant generated in a collision.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, there have been widely used seatbelt systems for protecting the occupant in an emergency of the vehicle. However, a disadvantage with conventional seatbelt systems is that before the occupant is reliably restrained by the seatbelt system in an emergency the knees of the occupant collide with the body of the vehicle, particularly against a steering post and are injured. This is because the distance between the knees of the occupant and the steering post is short.
Furthermore, a two-point seatbelt system in which the webbing extends substantially obliquely over the upper half body of the occupant is inferior in occupant restraining performance to a general three-point seatbelt system, and hence, in using the former there is a higher possibility that the knees of the occupant will collide with the steering post than in using the latter. For this reason, there has been proposed a knee panel provided between the knees of the occupant and the steering post for serving as a protective device to absorb the energy of collision generated in the knees of the occupant.
However, in the protective device, the knee panel should deform to a considerable extent to reliably absorb the energy generated in the knees of the occupant. In order to secure a space for the deformation, the knee panel bulges out toward the occupant to a considerable extent in the vicinity of the steering post. Consequently, there are disadvantages in that the occupant contacts the bulging knee panel when entering or leaving the vehicle and the bulging knee panel interferes with pedal operation for a brake pedal and the like during normal running of the vehicle.